Living Style of Chinese Railroad Workers

“Chinese are faithful and industrious and, under proper supervision, some become skillful in the performance of their duty. Many of them are becoming very expert in drilling, blasting and other departments of rock work.” – S. S. Montague, chief engineer of railroad, said in his annual report in 1865.

Hours of work went from sunrise to sunset, six days a week. The initial wages of Chinese workers were set at one dollar a day or twenty-six dollars a month, minus thirteen dollars for their rations. Later, they received thirty dollars and finally thirty-five dollars per month. They ate better-balanced meals unlike their white counterparts, including dried oysters, abalone, and cuttlefish, dried bamboo sprouts and mushrooms, five kinds of vegetables, pork, poultry, vermicelli, rice, salted cabbage, dried seaweed, sweet rice crackers, sugar, four kinds of dried fruit, Chinese bacon, peanut oil, and tea. Most importantly, the Chinese drank tepid tea, which they kept in whisky barrels or powder kegs suspended from each end of a bamboo pole and brought to work site. They also avoided alcohol and kept themselves clean, preventing the spread of germs.

Furthermore, even the 1867 Chinese workers strike impressed the railroad management, Charles Crocker commented that “if there had been that number of whites in a strike, there would have been murder and drunkenness and disorder, but with the Chinese it was just like Sunday; no violence was perpetuated along the whole line.” Generally, the Superintendent Strobridge expressed that the Chinese workers were “the best in the world. They learn quickly, do not fight, have no strikes that amount to anything, and are very cleanly in their habits. They will gamble, and do quarrel among themselves most noisily – but harmlessly,” which was quite the opposite of his initial sentiments.